Midnight Friend
Colossians 2: 6-15; Luke 11: 1-13

July 25, 2004

When I was a music student touring with the University of Regina jazz band, I became accustomed to a saying, a question, which was routine prior to attending concerts of famous jazz musicians: who would get to sit in the learn it all chairs? This was an important place of position for us as music students. It meant who would be sitting the closest to the famous jazz musician in concert and who therefore would be in the position to learn the most, soaking the lesson from the master musician in like a sponge? We saw the jazz drummer, Art Blakey, in New York, and for this nightclub concert we let Eric our drummer sit in the learn it all chair. For Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis, our entire trumpet section squeezed into the learn it all chairs. This wasn’t easy, by the way, considering the size of some of our trumpet players! I had a learn it all chair for Oscar Peterson once, in Switzerland, and as a bonus Ella Fitzgerald appeared in the same concert.

In our Gospel reading today in Luke, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. What a curious request! Didn’t they know how to pray? After all, they had the learn it all chairs to see Jesus in prayer many times. And, as Jews, they would have known praying since birth. A lot of it – both in daily personal prayer, in the synagogue and temples, with the village rabbis, and with John.

This is the second form of what we know as The Lord’s Prayer in the Bible, the first appearing at Matthew 6:9 in The Sermon on the Mount. Although the one in Luke is shorter than the one in Matthew, it contains three distinct sections concerned with prayer: first, Jesus teaches the Christian Communal Prayer in a request from the disciples to replicate the community of John, a community that walks with God; the second section stresses the importance of persistence in prayer; and the third highlights the effectiveness of prayer. This is the only time in Jesus' ministry that there is a request for instruction on prayer.

The structure of the prayer is simple: one address, two statements and three requests. The first word, the address, of the prayer is straightforward … “Father”… and its purpose is to affirm the unity by all who say it. To address God as Father is central, since it focuses on the relationship God has with his children. Community before God is a major part of discipleship and therefore a major part of our use of the Lord’s Prayer in worship today.

A second part of the prayer the prayer's content itself. It is not a checklist of specific wants and needs but is focussed on expressing a desire for God's presence, therefore “hallowed be your name, your kingdom come…” This note of submission to God is the prayer's pulse. The Jewish background to this can be seen in a section of the Kaddish, a prayer that often ends synagogue services which says, "Exalted and hallowed be his great name in the world which he created according to his will. May he let his kingdom rule in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of the whole of Israel…” What is the “kingdom”? The minister and writer John Ortberg portrays “kingdom” as this: “If the Bible were to completely fulfill its mission, our minds would be so transformed – so filled with thoughts and feelings of truth, love, joy, and humility – that our lives would become one uninterrupted series of acts of grace and moral beauty. Every moment would be a miniature reflection of life in the kingdom of God.”

With this or a similar understanding of kingdom, no wonder we would want it to be forthcoming and we would ask for it in our prayers.

The need for God's continual presence and daily care is requested in the phrase “daily bread.” Then, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” Responsive disciples recognize that we should not ask God to do something for us that we are not willing to do for others. Finally, the prayer recognizes that spiritual protection comes from God, “and lead us not into temptation.” This petition is perplexing. Why would God lead us into temptation? God does not tempt anyone! The Scripture at James 1: 13 says, “For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” Through this phrase in the prayer, we acknowledge God's power to protect us and keep us from succumbing to temptation when others lead us there.

Daily human need has a fixed place in Jesus’ prayers. For example, the need for food and forgiveness is essential to every human being. It is therefore reasonable of Jesus to make theological points by using parables tied to everyday life. The idea is based upon an ‘everyone knows’ framework. This is why, after the prayer, Jesus enters into a parable of a midnight friend. What happens when a friend arrives unexpected? In our community, particularly in the forty-below days of winter, there is a social expectation to be helped by others should we have an emergency. Likewise, during the time of the first disciples, there could be no doubt that hospitality would be expected and would be given when called upon; however, even among friends it would be irritating to be woken at midnight to be asked for some of tomorrow’s fresh bread. It is taking friendship a bit far!

In the disciples’ day, food was not as available as it is in our day and preservatives were basically unknown. The man who accepts a late-night guest is in a sticky situation: he has no food. The choice is to either not welcome his guest, which would have been socially unacceptable, or seek food from a neighbour who would for a certainty be in bed already. Don’t forget that most homes of this era had only one room. Waking the father would likely mean waking the whole family.

So Jesus turns this dilemma into a lesson about perseverance in prayer. The neighbour at first refuses to get up. The house is locked for the night and the children are in bed. To get the bread would cause great disturbance. Parents and grandparents the world over can relate to the man’s desire to not have his children wakened. We assume the man asks again, boldly, then perhaps again. Then, finally, Jesus says, “…he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.” Jesus continues with, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks; the door will be opened.” Indeed, this parable is about perseverance in prayer.

We should ask for things that are truly needed, like the man in this story. The man was not asking for toys or a copy of TV Guide. He was asking for bread.

He was both bold and shameless in his request. Jesus indicates God's willingness to receive such bold petitions. Unlike the neighbour who is disrupted in the night and responds grudgingly, God is waiting to respond to us. All we need to do is ask, seek and knock.

As if this lesson is not enough, Jesus then questions the disciples further and the answers are enormously obvious. What kind of father would give his son a poisonous snake to eat when the son asks for a fish? If the son asks for an egg, would his father give him a scorpion? Jesus says, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Like a loving father who feeds his children, so our heavenly Father will supply his children with the Spirit they need to guide their lives. At the foundation of all discipleship is therefore trust in the Father's loving kindness.

The kind of tender relationship Jesus has with the Father is not exclusive, but rather serves as a model of the relationship which all can have. If we know what it is to love and be loved in our human relationships, then we have what it takes for a deep relationship with God. Prayer is how we nurture our relationship with God.

Could there be a veiled message with Jesus using midnight in his parable? Is he saying we should get up at midnight to petition to God through prayer? This is not a far-fetched idea, for the Jewish tradition says, “How precious it is to rise at midnight in order to pray and meditate and study Torah.” Does midnight really mean midnight? In the days of the first disciples, when there were no radios, televisions or computers, wouldn’t bedtime have therefore come shortly after dark? The Jewish tradition indicates that throughout the year the correct time for the midnight prayer is when the first six hours of the night have passed regardless when midnight actually is. Rabbi Nachman from the Breslov Research Institute writes, “The main devotion of the Jew is to get up every night in the winter for the midnight prayer. In the summer, when the nights are short and we do not rise for the midnight prayer, he should be sure to get up with the dawn each morning.”

Can we apply this concept to our lives: can we make one time each day, say perhaps for even five minutes, for prayer, a focussed time with God? When are we truly alone throughout the day? For many of us, the answer just might be very early in the morning or very late at night. What is midnight in our lives?

Once we make the time for prayer, we should pay attention to the place for prayer. The first chapter of the Gospel of Mark says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” With our modern-day houses, with the many rooms available to us, where can we find a solitary place to pray? Some have a favourite chair, or some find it easier to talk with God in prayer outdoors in a garden. This is just a little tougher to do year-round in our climate! The Gospels record Jesus praying outside in places of awesome beauty: the mountainside, for example, or at the Sea of Galilee. Jesus looked for quiet places. Sometimes Jesus and his disciples had to go off in a boat to get to a quiet place. Where are our places of beauty and tranquility?

Learning to be fully present in prayer is difficult for many, too. For some of us, our minds are like monkeys in a banana tree. How can we rid it of its debris? Some find focus in lighting a candle to remind them of the illuminating effect of God. Some simply utter the same phrase, like Heavenly Father, over and over again until they are focussed. After this, we must remember to keep it simple: one address, two statements and three requests. Or, to start with, one address, one statement and one request.

Why must we pray? Some say, if God is all-knowing and all-seeing, doesn’t he know what we want and need before we pray? It’s curious that Jesus did not use this logic, for I counted twenty-five times Jesus prayed that was recorded in the four Gospels. Nor is this logic supported by the rest of the Scriptures. For example, in Romans 8: 26, 27 says, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes with groans that words cannot express.” While we may wish to utter real words most of the time in our prayers, I can think of times in our lives when groans are all we can give: in tragedies and the death of loved ones, for example.

Sometimes we talk with God about an immediate difficulty: the great prophet Elisha did this. In 2 Kings 2:23 we are told that as Elisha was walking up the road, a gang of teenagers were teasing him about being bald. Then, in verse 24, he prayed, and “… two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.” While I don’t want a bear to suddenly appear in my classroom, I can relate to the feelings of Elisha who had certain teenagers show him such disrespect. When we talk with God about what is happening in our lives, prayer becomes a much more lively and meaningful occurrence. Jesus understood this. Before Jesus chose his Apostles, we are told at Luke 6:12 that, “Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve…”

Why must we pray? Our scripture in Colossians today tells us that circumcision has been replaced by baptism for Christians. For those of us who were baptized into the Church as infants, our baptism symbolized our parents’ hope that we enter into a lifetime of intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After our baptism, just as our human relationships must be nurtured daily, we can nurture an intimate relationship with God through daily prayer.

At the core of our Christian faith lies this mystery: that we as frail and foolish creatures can enter into an intimate relationship with the eternal and almighty God: a relationship that can be called a friendship, one where we dare to call God Our Father.

Preached by Sharlene McGowan
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan